You will see comments here about a "wide 1st gear" . There is a discussion at the bottom, with some Questions and Answers, about the various 1st gears that have been fitted in the 01E quattro transmission. Here's pictures showing how to identify transmissions that have a wide 1st gear.
REVISION NOTE: 1/12/03 - in previous versions of this document, I've refered to a hardened and a non-hardened 1st gear. This comment about "hardened" was based on my (incorrect) assumption that the part numbers for the engines with higher torque used an extra surface hardening for reliability. I have recently found that the higher torque engine applications had a necked down mainshaft that would flex a little bit, thus keeping sudden torque impacts from loading the gear surfaces quite as much. Here are pictures of both types of mainshafts . Please note that the description "flexible 1st" is talking about the necked down versions of the mainshaft, which would permit a bit of "wind up" upon sudden torque load. Thus this main shaft was acting like a torsion bar spring in a suspension.
Basically, there was the original type 1st (mainshaft part # 01E 311 105 G), the wider 1st, not flexible (...105J) the flexible 1st (...105E) and the flexible wide 1st (...105H).
Numbers shown as >>88888 means "up to # 88888", and 88889>> means "after # 88889." This is the point where the wide 1st gear began use in that particular transmission. The clues in the part # fiche are drive shaft, or main shaft, part # 01E 311 105 H, 1st gear # 01E 311 257 F , and middle housing part # 01E 301 211 B There is also a bearing that's changed.
Return to the previous page and click on the next section, which gives a breakdown of part numbers and code letters for the various transmissions. This will show which gearboxes used which 1st gear.
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Middle housing (end plate) - showing switch to wide 1st gear w/ 211B housing It's important to understand that the casting number, cast into a part is not necessarily the same as the part number. This middle housing is a good example. This middle housing has a number 01E 301 211 cast into the metal; but it does not show the "B" suffix for that part. (I'm told later production 211B housings did have the "B" suffix). See this set of pictures to tell whether a transmission has the "B" middle housing
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DISCUSSION ON 1ST GEAR VARIATIONS:
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Q. What are the variations on 1st gear in the 01E transmission?
A. There are four different 1st gear (mainshaft) part numbers. Basically, there was the original type 1st (mainshaft part # 01E 311 105 G), the flexible 1st ( ... 105 E), the wide 1st ( ... 105 J), and the wide & flexible 1st ( ... 105H). The 105G was the 1st gear originally used in the lower HP cars, which included all of the '92 - '95 US and Canada cars with a 5 speed, and European 6 speed cars with AAN engines during the same period. During this early period, the V8 cars and the S2's had a flexible mainshaft for 1st gear, this is the 105E. The higher horepower cars like the RS2 had yet a different mainshaft, with a wider gear for 1st that was also flexible, this is the 105H. This migrated into the V8 cars somewhere in 1995. A wide 1st mainshaft (105J) also migrated into all of the other 6 speed cars, somewhere around late 1995 or early 1996.
Q. What's this talk about the wider first gear?
A. There is a problem with the early 01E series of transmissions. First gear is not wide enough for the loads that a turbo can produce under some situations. This has happened in both chipped and non-chipped cars. Audi made the RS2 transmission with a wider first gear to handle the increased torque. This change then made it into the S2 in late 1994 and finally into the S6 in June of 1995. If your S6 was a June '95 build date or later, you should check your transmission serial number to see if it is "CBD 79445" or above. If so, you have the wider first gear. One lister has destroyed first gear in three transmissions. He says he has a list of other s-listers who have the same problem. The author of this web page, Charlie Smith, personally experienced the problem. There is a description of the symptoms of the problem just below in this web page.
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HOW CAN I TELL IF A TRANSMISSION HAS A WIDE 1ST GEAR?
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Here's pictures showing how to identify center section of
transmissions that have a wide 1st gear.
There's also pictures here of a tail housing with the ProConTen guide
and a picture of a transmision with an oil pump.
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SYMPTOMS OF FIRST GEAR FAILURE
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How can I tell if I have the problem?
A description of the symptoms in a '95 S6, with 56,000 miles on the odometer.
The noise began as a very faint tic, tic, tic noise - but just when beginning to move in 1st gear when the car was cold and when it was 20F or 25F degrees outside. Sort of like the noise you made as a kid by putting a playing card into the spokes of a bicycle, but not that loud. Since it was cold, of course the windows were rolled up.
I dismissed the noise, as perhaps being due to something that oil had not yet reached, because once I would shift into 2nd for a few feet, and then back into 1st - the noise would be gone. I would only hear it on the first motion ... when I would be traveling at 2 or 3 MPH in a parking lot with very light throttle.
Anyway, by the time I had driven another 2000 miles, the noise was quite apparent, particularily if I would drive away with the windows rolled down. On disassembly, the damage to 1st gear was quite apparent. The rubbing surface of one tooth on the mainshaft was very badly galled away.
1st gear failure, showing tooth galling
Click on picture for enlarged photo.
During the period when the noise of the failure was developing, there no super fast starts, and certainly no wheel spinning starts. There was plenty of full throttle acceleration in first gear, but only after the clutch was fully out.
